Witness says Barnes drove him to murder scene

Kieron Phillip testified yesterday that he accompanied murder accused Errol “Errie” Barnes to the John Hughes crime scene on the night the Nut Grove man’s former girlfriend was shot and killed.
Phillip, of Ottos, said he was on his way home on the evening of September 5, 2012 when Barnes pulled up alongside him, and asked him to follow him to look for his child at John Hughes.
The Ottos man said when they arrived outside Melissa Rose’s home, a place he had not visited before the fatal shooting, Barnes hopped out of the vehicle, while he was having a conversation on his cellphone.
“Before the car parked I realised it was going to be problem. When we came over the hill, Errie said ‘he ya, he ya”, and when I saw the truck … I knew it was owed by a guy name Chuka and Errie worked for the guy, so I knew it was going to be problem. I was still in a conversation when Errie left the vehicle for about five minutes,” Phillip said.
It was about 20 seconds after he heard a loud explosion when Phillip said he saw a “panicked” Barnes return to the vehicle.
“He came back running back to the vehicle. I was still on the phone for a little while. At that stage he was panicked, he jumped in the car and it was pure speed driving,” Phillip testified.
Rose’s, mother who has sat through six days of testimony, became so overwhelmed with emotion that she excused herself from the courtroom in tears.
Phillip further said that upon reaching the intersection of All Saints and American Road, Barnes made a phone call to someone and said: “I’m coming now, open the door.”
The Ottos man said when they arrived in Nut Grove, Barnes removed “something” from the lower larger door pocket of the vehicle and instructed him to drive the silver Almera owned by Raddy’s Car Rental to his home. The witness said he did not see what the object was.
Phillip said no words were exchanged during the drive he estimated lasted about 10 minutes from John Hughes to Nut Grove.
 
(More in today’s Daily Observer)